Not long ago, I made a trade with a gentlemen who tossed in a nice G 90/2.8 to even up the deal. I'd used the lens before and liked it, but hated the focus on the e-mount adapters, so gave it up pretty quickly. I didn't even get around to testing the new one until today and rediscovered an interest. Plus, the Iceland trip's over and now I need a project to keep me occupied until the next trip, so I think I'm going to convert it.
I've been using Koji Kawakami's photos of the teardown and mod here as a guide. He was fairly determined to use M42 helicoids (which certainly kept things small) and it forced him to make cuts and grindings on the outer optics casing that aren't necessary. My thought is to use an M52 to M42 helicoid like this and an M52-to-M42 adapter on the front like this. And then I have a thin M42-E adapter to make it fit. I haven't taken the lens apart yet and measured the prong diameter, but that will be the first hurdle; getting the M52-to-M42 adapter to seat the optical block while letting the aperture dial rotate. After that, it should just be a matter of seeing if I can get to infinity using the 36-90mm helicoid, or if I have to figure something out with the 25-55. I'm really hoping it's the 36-90. I know it takes a little stopping down to get the best of it up close, but it'd be nice to have that amount of extension immediately available.
And yes, I know, I'm late to the party. Sometimes things have to fall into my lap before I pay attention, I guess.
